Category: Comics

Ongoing Investigations: Case #220

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narutaki_icon_4040 I finished up  Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones much more quickly than the first GBA game. I can attribute it to a couple of things, loving the character relationships more and finally getting a handle on how the game is played. Plus, the first was 30 chapters while this was only 20.

But I actually think the game was easier than the first, too. I don’t think I have gotten that much better, and yet I was able to beat many chapters in just one go.

I loved that I was able to build up Eirika as a badass fighter who was not overshadowed in the story by her warrior brother. And of course she marries General Seth in the end.

I was disappointed that some of the relationships I worked on building up to A rank did not result in the characters getting a combined ending.

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hisui_icon_4040 With our new SWAT Reviews already started this season I decided to make all my Ongoing Investigations about series that just finished up this week. Now the one person who regularly reads this to figure out what to watch from last season will have a better idea of what to do.

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet was a solid show. It was nice to see an original science fiction setting with mecha that generally made everyone happy. I think there were a good deal of people who were hoping for more or something grander. But making everyone generally happy as opposed to ecstatic is a fairly admirable and seemingly unobtainable accomlishment. The pacing in the middle could have been stronger. I know that two episodes that were mostly slice of life with fan service scenes in them hardly did anything to win over people who wanted more robot action, world building, or character growth. Well those episodes had a bit of the last two things but Belly Dancing Amy made some people forget that. In their defense it did seem a little gratuitous despite having a strong emotional pay off at the end.

People were expected a Tomino level bloodbath but overall other than a one major death it seems like we don’t loose anyone that important. I guess that shows that the Urobutcher was really only involved with the first and last episodes. Or maybe just maybe writers can do things outside of what the fandom expects them to do. But that is just crazy talk.

I think the most common complaint was “When the fudge did they decide to make the Pirate Queen Lukkage a plot important character?” She went from a one-off villain to important side character really out of nowhere. This is not One Piece and she is not Buggy the Clown.  I did not have a major problem with her but she did seem to come back to prominence for no real reason other than her two flotation devices (and I’m not talking about the ones attached to her Lobster Yunboro.)

The question a lot of people seem to be asking is should there be more Gargantia? It has a distinct ending that has no major or dire cliff hangers. But at the same time there are a good deal of elements that could be developed into news shows if they wanted them to be. In a way that is probably the best way to end a series you want to continue. It makes people excited when they hear about a new series but not bitter until that announcement. So I hope to see more of this setting but I am satisfied it that is all there is to this tale.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

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After more than a decade, I have a comic book pull list again.

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narutaki_icon_4040 Growing up on the Southside of Indianapolis in the 90s, I actually had a better comic selection than you might imagine with three different comic book stores within reach. They didn’t carry much independent stuff, but at the time superheroes were my poison. Thanks to my dad’s dedication to letting me be as nerdy as I wanted, we were in visiting these local stores at least once a week. The employees knew our names and each week we’d chat a little before plopping down our latest purchases.

Then at some point, I don’t really remember when, my dad and I started having a pull list at our favorite of the stores. (A pull list, for those scratching their heads, is just what it sounds like: a pre-reservation system for your favorite comics that the store holds for you as they come out each month.) And the amount of comics I read grew. When the stores started carrying manga, I jumped in. Then I found myself skimming the Previews catalog for new titles or the staff would set aside new stuff my dad and I might like.

Right before my last year of high school, I stopped buying comics monthly and that mighty pull list was no more. Fast forward a year or so later to me moving to NYC, where one can gorge on comic books, and still no pull list materialized. For the ten years thereafter, I hadn’t thought about why I had stopped using the pull list system, but in the last month I really started to mull it over.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #219

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301447 It was time for me to finish GTO: The Early Years since Vertical Inc was gracious enough to license volumes 11-15 to finish off the series after Tokyopop went belly up. The adventures of the Oni-Baku are mainly episodic so there was no burning need to see the conclusion to the grand narrative. Also the main plot point: Can Eikichi Onizuka and Ryuji Danma get laid is already known conclusion to anyone who ever read GTO. But that does not mean just because there in no huge meta-plot that these episode are any less worth reading.

The relationship between GTO: The Early Years and GTO always reminds me of Ranma ½ and Urusei Yatsura. GTO and Ranma were extremely popular in the U.S. so the American licensors took the next logical step and licensed the  earlier series in hope that they would have the same fanbase. But as both works are rougher works with a slightly older art style they were both generally ignored by anyone but the most die-hard devotees of the more popular series. That is a real shame because both GTO: The Early Years and Urusei Yatsura both have a unique charm that the latter series lacks. It is not that the new series are bad. The appeal is just slightly different. Maybe that is why the older series don’t sell as well.

It is fascinating to see how Tohru Fujisawa styled evolves over the course of the series. GTO: The Early Years starts off as a goofy and raunchy “teens tying to lose their virginity” comedy like one would see in the 80s. It then morphs into a yankee fighting series where the Oni-Baku have to fight increasingly hard cord punks. There is still some humor but it is mainly a fighting series. Then the series ends with a better mix of the first two styles of the series. None of the later arcs really feel like they have to choose which manga it wants to be.

But thankfully for the most part the manga brings those two hand together nicely. The crazy mayhem and the goofy comedy translation between each other seamlessly. In fact the last arc does a great job of mixing them like a wonderful peanut butter and chocolate combination. It really lays the groundwork for GTO which would use this formula in the last third of the series pretty much for the entire run of the series.

I really feel bad for Shinomi Fujisaki. She was just a key part of GTO: The Early Years near the end so her being nothing more than cameo in GTO is sort of sad. Ryuji and Nagisa’s storyline was pretty much over by the end of GTO: The Early Years. So them getting pretty much just an epilogue in GTO makes sense. But Shinomi feels downright neglected. Thankfully she gets her proper sendoff in Shonan 14 Days.

There are some stand out stories in these last 5 books. There is a surprisingly sensitive transexual love story from a series that is mostly dick jokes or people racing on bikes and punching people. There is a Kindaichi Case Files inspired murder mystery that I will write-up for the blog when I have a chance. There is a story about mega racists ex-marines, surfing, and drama that is pretty much as close to an American 80’s movie as you can get without be a direct adaptation. Also the story about the night vision goggles is simply inspired.

If you ever liked GTO but felt that GTO: The Early Years was a bit too different you might just want to go back and try the last 5 books from Vertical. Heck. If you just like comedy manga with a bit of action then you owe it to yourself to pick up these classics. GTO: The Early Years is about being young, stupid, and macho in the best possible way.

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I can’t stop playing Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. I’ve been even more drawn into this world and its character than that of the first GBA Fire Emblem which has really shocked me.

A dark force has reemerged in the land and each nation holds a one of the sacred stones a means by which to stop it. At the beginning of the game, Eirika and Ephraim’s homeland is betrayed and invaded and their father the king is murdered. Eirika first sets out on a quest to find her brother. While you simultaneously get to play through some of the parts of Ephraim’s story as well. In this game, you are simply each character as opposed to being a wandering tactician.

There are a couple of added battle features in this game which give you the ability to grind somewhat. I am trying not to do it too often since one of the things I really liked about the first game was a reliance on only story-based combat to level your skills. It made it challenging but also kept it interesting all the time. But I have found it useful when characters have gained a new skill which starts at rank E or D.

I’m loving all the wandering royalty in this game! And I find myself more invested in the many relationship opportunities than I was in the first.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

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